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Happily Editor After

Love Inspired Editor Emily Rodmell and Associate Editors Elizabeth Mazer and Shana Smith are looking to fall in love…with your manuscripts. If you think your story will make our hearts pound and palms sweat, then we have a great opportunity for you.

We’re are on the prowl for new authors for Love Inspired, Love Inspired Suspense and Love Inspired Historical, and we’ll listen to your ideas in a new speed dating pitch opportunity called Happily Editor After.

This opportunity is open to anyone who has never been published with the Love Inspired lines and who doesn’t currently have a full manuscript under consideration with a Love Inspired editor. It only requires that you get a synopsis ready and have a desire to write for the inspirational (Christian) romance market. You’ll have a chance to peruse our online matchmaking profiles and pick the editor who you think would love your story. Then you’ll get to pitch her your idea in one paragraph, and your chosen editor will respond by filling out the following comment card with her first impression of the idea.

Check one:
__I’ll cry if you don’t send me your manuscript (requested full)
__I’d like to get to know your manuscript better (requested proposal)
__I’m not sure if there’s a spark between your manuscript and me, but I’m willing to give it a chance to convince me (requested synopsis)
__There’s just no connection between your manuscript and me (no request, but isn’t it great to know the idea won’t work before you spend time writing it?)

Just like with online dating, polish your pitches and put your best foot forward. Pay attention to our likes and dislikes so you can pick the right match for your manuscript and wow us with your work. Start those manuscripts now so that if you get a request, you can send it in. While full manuscripts aren’t required for the pitch, just like real dating, the more you have to offer, the more interested we’ll be. Please be sure to mention in your pitch how much of the manuscript is completed. A similar pitch session in 2012 resulted in 9 contract offers, so don’t let this opportunity pass you by.

How this will work
Sign up stating your intent to pitch the editor you think is the perfect match for your story by Monday May 6th. Each editor has up to 50 available slots. First come, first served. You can only pick one editor. If your first choice is full, you will be given the opportunity to choose another editor.

Details:
• Sign up in this thread and email Rae- doeraemi@gmail.com stating your intent to pitch by Monday May 6th with the name of the editor you would like to pitch to, the line your ms is targeted to, the title of your ms, and percent complete. You are not signed up until you email Rae and Rae confirms!
• On Wednesday, May 8th at 1pm Eastern, we will gather in the Harlequin.com chat room. The editors will go into separate rooms, where they will hear individual pitches.
• Pitchers will be called in the order they signed up to give their pitch. Though we will try to make accommodations for people on break from work, we cannot guarantee a specific pitch time.
• Once the editor gives her feedback, the next pitcher will be called into the room.
• We will be quickly going through each pitch in order, so be prepared to copy and paste your pitch.

We will have practice chats to allow pitchers to practice using the chat room. We will announce the schedule closer to the pitch. If you have not pitched in the Harlequin.com chat room before, please plan on attending a practice chat to make the pitches go as smoothly as possible.

Hi guys,
What a great opportunity for all of you once again and having three editors--even better!

I cannot stress this enough, please make sure you email me as well so that we have a way to be in contact with you. I've answered seven emails so far.

Also, I know some of you try to go by the number of your post in here, because there are three and because sometimes people email me before they post, just know that the number has no merit whatsoever, especially since there are three editors this time. I've cleaned out my spam folder and will be watching for strays that sometimes get put over there. And if it saves you some time, remember you are only emailing me--the host, so all I need is the title, percentage done and editor you would like to pitch too. We don't forward your emails telling us your achievements to the editor, you can save that for later. You'll all go into a spreadsheet so that we can keep track of all of you.

Just popping in to say that Elizabeth, Shana and I are thrilled that you're all taking advantage of this opportunity. Don't forget to mention which editor you'd like to pitch to. We want to make the perfect matches.

I've emailed Rae to sign up! I'm hoping to pitch my contemporary LI novel (working title: Perfect Second Chance) to Shana, and this will hopefully be the motivation I need to get me to pick up the pace with writing it!

Helping you succeed

I'm so excited to see so many new faces in here! I wanted to encourage everyone to poke around our discussions here because there's a lot of great information to help you put your best pitch forward.

One of the best tools (and I encourage everyone to give it a read) is Winnie Griggs' Honing Your Pitch discussion. While it's no longer active and you won't get any feedback, you'll learn a lot about how to condense your story into a concise pitch. Remember, when you're pitching to the editors, you're limited to one paragraph, which you will copy and past into the chat, so you'll want to really make your paragraph shine.

We also have a discussion on Writing Inspirational Romance where you can chat with other writers about what you're working on and encourage each other.

I know Rae is putting together a number of really great craft courses in the coming months, so be sure to check them out. I've gotten a peek at what she has in store, and I'm really excited for the opportunities you guys are going to have to learn from some fantastic authors.

If you have suggestions about things you'd like to learn about that might help you with your pitches, Rae would love to hear from you in her suggestion box. We can't make any promises, but we really want to help you succeed.

Finally, I am working with Emily and the other editors to plan a chat with them sometime in the future. I don't have any more information than that, but I wanted to let you know that it's in the works. In the meantime, feel free to chat here, or ask Emily any questions in her Q&A Discussion.

We're hoping that by giving you four months to put together the perfect story for the Love Inspired lines, that you'll have the chance to create something that really shines!

Please make sure you tell me who you want to pitch too. The emails are coming in fast and furious and I want to respond to all of you as quickly as possible and you do not want me to pick the person for you because, I'll get it wrong and that'll make you look bad. We were just talking about this in Donna Alward's pitch thread.

I know we're all guilty of checking the box that we read and understood the rules for different things when we really haven't. Please make sure that you read the rules here and read about the editor and make your choice accordingly. Paying attention to the details is important in something like this and reading the header and rules will only take a few seconds. There are plenty of spots left, so please, take that extra minute.